Pistols are still the winner. Zombies or kindergarteners... Pistols with multiple clips is the easiest way to wreak havoc. If its truly about preventing these shootings start with taking our pistols.
It is absolutely about preventing these shootings. So, you are willing to give up your pistols to save lives? If not, why?
Sorry, I'm with Christine on this one. One of the main reasons for having an AR is defensive. Protection. Some of us feel that the government will not come and protect us when we need protection. Simple as that. Do you trust that your government has your best interest at heart? I certainly do not. Do I believe they can protect me? Not likely considering the sheriffs department is 15 miles away, and there are no full time city police in the town I live closest to. Do I think I will ever need to us a gun to defend myself? I certainly hope not, but I would rather be the person who had a gun and never used it than the person that needed it and did not have it. Surely that makes sense.
If a deranged person doesn't have access to AR's/pistols/shotguns, do you truly believe they will not find a way to accomplish their task?
Because I'm not of the mindset that taking away only type of gun will save lives. Insane people and criminals don't tend to obey the law.... Especially when other weapons that are just as deadly are readily available... If we want to start, do away with all gun free zones and post LEOs at every school campus. Have all doors within a school lock like exterior doors so that schools can go into lockdown mode leaving only empty hallways to shoot up. I don't find 20 deaths on one day any more tragic than 20 deaths over the span of a month. Abortions account for millions of deaths annually. Alcohol related deaths again far outnumber shootings. Cars that can go faster than 60 are a huge risk to yourself and others. Large cokes and sweet teas to accompany Big Macs leads to more health problems and deaths then alcohol. Cigarettes should be banned as well. Maybe we approach society instead of their weapon of choice. Lets ban all video games involving a gun...along with action packed movies. Set a curfew for cities since most crime happens at night. My long drawn out point is people are killing themselves by the millions annually, regardless of their weapon of choice. Knee jerk reactions over shootings does nothing to prevent these attacks.... We can only prepare for them. The lengths we can go to to prevent deaths is never ending...
I have read this whole thread (wow) and I'll share my .02: Nothing and I mean nothing has been proven more than this: Humans have proven one thing that we can do consistently, fail. We fail to teach responsibility for our actions, we fail to raise people who respect and cherish life, we fail to glamorize hard work and not easy money, we fail to provide children with stable homes and consistent marriages, we fail to balance our budget (had to slip that in)...I could go on and on. We fail, and unless we as a COLLECTIVE WE all start stepping up to the plate and changing this downward spiral is only going to get worse. No law is going to cure our problems. No medication is going to cure our problems. No therapist is going to cure are problems. They're are all just putting bandaids on something far worse than a scratch. We are so screwed up as a society to our core unless drastic changes are made we will never see anything work to slowly start removing evil from our schools, our movie theaters or conference centers and malls. We will never be able to mandate or ban crimes no matter what "tools" you remove from the criminals. Now all that said, can laws be passed that will make it harder, more time consuming and possible more expensive for citizens to legally buy an "assault style" weapon? Sure, and as a proud gun supporter and 2nd Amendment practicer I would even support that. It is far too easy to purchase Assault style rifles in this country, if you can't see that then you haven't purchased one before at a gun show (I have, I know how easy it was). So make it tougher, perhaps almost too tough, but make it still possible for citizens to gain legal possession of one if they desire. A criminal isn't going to go through piles of paperwork, legal background checks and pay a substantial amount of money to acquire one (they'll just buy one off the corner...but that's another issue). Same thing for extended or high capacity magazines...honestly none of us need 100 round magazine of any kind...do I know what the magic number is nope...but I'll just throw 20 as my personal "max" I think should be available. The one thing the "anti-gun" people can't do is think going to the extreme of banning all weapons or even all semi automatic weapons...I mean you're talking about completely stripping people of their entire 2nd Amendment. Also think about it, if all semi-autos are banned you're even talking about a ruger 10/22 or Mossberg Plinkster strictly only useful for plinking popcans or squirrels...not needed. All this said, us gun supporters need to realize we currently live in a society that cannot handle as free access to guns as we currently have. We should support possible magazine restrictions (as long as not ridiculous). We should support closing the easily purchased Gun Show loop and make it a little tougher at MINIMUM for people to purchase Assault Style weapons. We have no use for them other than their fun to shoot...one that is hardly justifiable to the other side. If they meet us, we must do likewise and meet them. At the same time though, encourage the discussion of making it legal for teachers who are licensed, trained and desire to carry concealed handguns in the schools do so. Continue to push for the right to bear arms legally in states where it isn't. Limiting or increasing the amount of red tape one must cross to get extended magazines or assault style weaponry isn't losing your second amendment right, it's actually a step at refining it to better protect the country. I'm done now.
I can not even imagine living a life that would make me think I need an AR to possibly defend myself. That is really a sad place to be.
There were still the normal number of shooting deaths in addition to the mass killings. I cant kill an entire classroom with a cigarette, or a coke, or a sweat tea, or a bottle of booze. Most of those deaths are self inflicted. Big difference.
I truely belive they are less likely to be as successful. So, yes. These freaks usually go with what is easy (both to implement and to access)...guns. It takes some brains to orchestrate something like a bombing, and often some outside help. So, more chance of getting caught prior to the act. Any idiot can shoot a gun. They will still kill themselves, but they will take less victims with them.
That's a pretty short sided response. So you can't think of any way possible in your lifetime that there could be breakdown in society? You don't think there could be a natural or human made disaster the could cause major changes in how we live our lives? I wish I could know everything would be peaches and cream, but I'm a realist and I would rather be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. Either way, having an AR doesn't hurt my chances of living my life the way I want to, so why not have one?
Not short sided at all. Realistic in my opinion. But, I also didnt stock up on water and food for the impending doom of Y2K. My family didnt ever build a bomb shelter either. And, I dont fear that tomorrow is the end of the world. I view the chances of having a complete societal and/or governmental breakdown equally absurd. Keep in mind that by the 1970's most of the world was supposed to starve to death and by the year 2000 the world was supposed to be out of oil. And by now, both coasts of the US were supposed to be underwater due to the melting of the polar ice caps. I will not live in fear and will not prepare for something that has no likelyhood of happening. This isn't Hooker's pretend game, this is reality. Owning an AR would be the least of your worries if the wheels fall off.
I'm copying this from my earlier post on a different thread. Seems to have a better home here. I found some interesting articles online pertaining to preventable causes of death in the United States. Amazingly enough firearms are towards the bottom of that list, approxinately 16,000 suicides vs 10,000 homicides. At the top of the list are the usual suspects tobacco, obesity, and alcohol related deaths totaling close to 630,000 combined. What happened in CT, clear enough, was a tragic event, however, it should be more transparent than ever to us the ability for the media and government to use fear and lack of education in order to push their agendas. The 'shock factor' in an event like this, where multiple deaths occur within an extremely short period of time, relatively speaking, create a much better story for the media to brush a broad stoke with. This allows them to easily show photographs of victims, report stories of deranged madmen, and link the causes to a single devise. What is truly sad is the excitement the media gets out of a story such as the Newtown one. What else can we come up with to avoid discussing the fiscal cliff, the European debt crisis, and government inaction in Libya? The lack of firearm related knowledge the average person has allows for stories like these to be easily used into swaying people to believing what they are told by reporting agencies and their 'leaders' in public office. Sadly, it is human nature to be afaid of something which you are uneducated on. This leads to the elimination of creative and self thought, something we as a country have the freedom to exercise. Many people would be too afraid to shoot an AR-15, let alone own one; so who's keeping them from knowing how dangerous it may or may not be? I for one will be bringing my girlfriend upstate to our hunting camp to bust off some 5.56 rounds this winter in hope of educating at least one person with little to no knowledge of guns.
You may have needed an AR in LA after Katrina. I wasn't there but from what I read about conditions if I were the house with food, water and electricity ( I would be here ) then I would have needed an AR to protect that for my family. I don't have an AR so I would have had to use rifles, shotguns and handguns.
Actually,imo,it would make more sense to me to go in with multiple pistols(high capacity clips or not,3 pistols is going to carry a lot of rounds).I can hide 2 or 3 pistols under a shirt and be in the middle of a crowd and shooting before anyone knows what is happening. An AW is a freaking rifle and that is going to be hard to hide. Someone should notice when you get out of your car. BUT,we're talking in circles. The guns aren't going anywhere. Criminals will get them and use them.I've already addressed what needs to be done in that area.
For those of you discussing handguns........I guarantee they absolutely will be proposing them too. They may not get that far, but trust me it's on the immediate agenda. Here is a clip from Feinstein's statement on Monday. Somehow this never made it to the CNN website or any other media outlet except fox. The rest of the news outlets make it just seem like they are going to be trying to reinstate the previous AWB. I can guarantee they will be pushing for much more than that this time around. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/18/nra-to-push-back-soon-sources-say/#ixzz2FdKWKwIK If they get this passed, basically any handgun out there except for a revolver or TC Encore/Contender falls under what she outlined above.
I predicted this would be the way they would start. They will cross a couple off the list and make it look like they are "compromising" Unless ,of course,they can get the whole package,then they will stick with it.
From what I have been told, if you have handguns and shotguns, you will be just fine. Save your money and buy good whiskey.
LOL Well, I do have handguns, rifles and shotguns but no AR. The money I saved was spent on a muzzleloader . I don't drink whiskey. They could ban whiskey for all I care LOL.
